The Children of Time
by ilikedan
Summary: The Doctor has a very complex and loving relationship with all of his companions. Most of them confuse his feelings for love and lust while the Doctor really has a more paternal aim in mind. Two-shot
1. Children of Time

I do not own any part of Doctor Who, that would be fabulous, but sadly it is not true.

* * *

He loved his companions. All of them. Really, he did, even the annoying ones.

But sometimes they could be so thick.

He never understood why they never saw it, why they never felt it. It wasn't like he was hiding it or anything; didn't they see the way he spoke to them or held their hands? Others did though; outsiders could see what was really going on. They probably thought it was a little odd for such a young pair to have such a relationship, but they understood it none the less. They'd even had it pointed out to them on one occasion by Davros on the Dalek Crucible. Well, yes, they_ had_ at the time been embroiled in the end of the universe and all of reality but, honestly, that was no excuse not to pay attention.

The Children of Time.

The_ Children _of Time_._

It hadn't always been that way. Back when he'd been young and grumpy- yes young people were always grumpy, have you ever seen a baby? If they aren't sobbing their heads, they're frowning at the world- companions had just been companions.

He hadn't even _wanted_ the first pair, but Ian and Barbara's discovery of the TARDIS in the Foreman junkyard and his increasing paranoia about being discovered with his borrowed [read: stolen] TARDIS- well he just ended up stealing them as well. His granddaughter Susan's big, compassionate eyes certainly didn't hurt either. No matter how old or young he was, it seemed a sad child would always get the best of him.

But at the time they were all just humans. They were fun for a brief, few years, taking in the sights of the universe, seeing it once again through the virgin eyes of a species that hadn't achieved space travel yet. But he never really got all that upset when one came or went. Oh sure he did get rather attached to a few of them, Sarah Jane being a notable example. And when one of them, oh poor Adric, died on one of their adventures well of course he felt horribly guilty. But there had still been this sort of barrier between them, because each of them would leave as they all eventually did and he would go back to his people on Gallifrey.

Now no one would ever say he fit in on Gallifrey. It was too repressive, too resolute and binding for someone as spontaneous and reckless as he was. It's one reason why in recent years been nostalgically fond of Victorian England, it just had the same feel as his home world only without the flying time machines and the crazy headdresses and the looms.

Actually never mind it's nothing like Victorian England so forget that.

What was he saying again? Oh right. Gallifrey. The Time Lords. He may not have got along with him but they were always _there_. He could have gone there whenever he wanted to, to breathe in the ruddy smell of the red grass, to catch the most glorious sunrises in all the nine systems, to be among a people and a culture that had a rich, shared history.

Ok so that last bit may have been a bit of a stretch, the only thing that could ever really call him home was his children.

No matter how far or how fast he travelled, he always went back to his home world whenever any one of his children asked. He supposed it defeated the purpose of running away, but after so many months away his hearts would just ache for them. He loved every single one of them, his sons and his daughters, the ones that loved and despised him for his eccentricities, the ones who ran into his arms when he arrived and the ones who hung back with a smile.

Oh how he missed them terribly.

Like his eldest son, that boy tried so hard to be the perfect Gallifreyan stick-in-the-mud. He read all the tomes, attended all the boring classes and meetings and wrote his name in triplicate on all the forms. It really was too bad he was rubbish at it all. Too much of his father in him probably. Oh how he and that boy used to bicker on philosophy and responsibilities; only those closest to them understood the underlying love and respect beneath those barbed words.

He died on a planet far away from his home and even farther away from his father when he came into contact with Chen 7. He was only 230 at the time.

Or his daughter, his kind and beautiful daughter with her feathery blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes who called him 'poppa' and always greeted him with a hug no matter how long he had been away. She was the one who gave him his granddaughter Susan. Some of his fondest memories to this day are of his daughter and granddughter cuddled together on the TARDIS as he regaled them with stories of his adventures across all of time and space.

She was killed at the bitter end of the Time War. He had tried so hard to take her away from Gallifrey, to get her to run away with him like her daughter before her but she refused to leave her beloved planet, the universe itself, to the Daleks. She was shot down in cold blood by those monsters trying to negotiate peace before the war destroyed everything. Her death, the death of his last blood child, is what gave him the courage to finally end the Time War once and for all.

And just like that it was all gone. Gallifrey. The Daleks. His children. All that remained was a mad man and his box. He could give a flying Sontaran about the Daleks or even his own demented people, but his _children_, the only thing that gave him a semblance of a home were gone forever. And he was devastated. That loss, that horrible never-ending pain just made him bitter and angry and made his dream of travelling the universe seemed so pointless without a family to return home to.

Until he met Rose.

It had been an accident meeting her, he hadn't been looking for anybody, he just wanted to sulk and let his anger burn until it hollowed him out completely. But then all at once he found himself running, really properly running, again. He found the battle against the Autons engaging and exciting for the first time in so very long. And all because some little human reminded him what it was like to be needed. The deal was sealed when he realized just how much she resembled his daughter and the fact that she looked so darn happy to see the universe he had just about given up on.

So amazingly once again the Doctor found himself a father.

Only she didn't quite see it that way.

It was his fault he supposed. He coddled her, took her wherever she wanted to go. He was even going to let her get away with the crazy paradox she created with her dead father. He would have done absolutely anything to keep her safe and happy. He would have been satisfied to die giving her back her life and her future but no, she just _had_ to go and be brilliant and save the world and himself from committing yet another genocide.

How he loved her. Too bad she didn't feel the same sort of love.

He realized all too late her true feelings when he'd been recovering from his latest regeneration in the Tyler home. He'd been mostly unconscious at the time, but he had heard enough of the girls' conversation to realize that Rose believed herself in love with him. As in _love-love_ with him. And that was very extremely not good.

But he was so afraid of losing her. Afraid that if he rejected her misplaced feelings she would leave for good and then he'd have one more lost child on his tally. So he sort of just, let it go. He didn't openly reciprocate her feelings but he didn't exactly deny them either. And that set the standard for companions to come. He'd always been a selfish old man and it was never more clear than when he was with one or more of his companions.

Even once Rose had been trapped in the parallel universe, he had found another human to become an adopted child and then another and the cycle just kept going.

He thought he'd got it right with Martha- he _had_ said after all that that first kiss had meant nothing- but still what a girl! What a doctor she made! He's treated her so poorly, put her through so much. He'd just come back from Rose's departure when he found himself with another curious Earth girl to run with. Only at the very end when the Master enslaved the Earth did the Doctor really, truly appreciate how amazing and wonderful and brilliant she was to turn a whole year around like that with just a thought. She wasn't his daughter and she wasn't Rose, but he loved her anyway.

He discovered it only in time for her to leave.

And to realize that she, like Rose, had fallen in love with him as well.

It was times like these that he really disliked his younger face. Sure he could tell them that he was 907 and loved them like a father or even a grandfather but these silly, amazing, brilliant people just wouldn't believe him.

He and Donna had the easiest time of that. She never looked at him like Rose and Martha had, to her, he was just the Doctor, her own personal Martian ready to show her the universe. He thinks it was all due to Wilfred. Good ole Wilfred Mott. Consciously or not, Donna probably understood that he treated much like her own grandfather did. It was certainly why he and the old soldier got on so well.

In some bizarre and alien way, they shared a granddaughter.

It had hurt so much to lose Donna because she was forever lost to him. He could never see her again for fear of bringing about the Metacrisis in her once again. And though it hurt, hurt more than when Rose became trapped in Pete's World or Martha walked out of the TARDIS for the last time, the Doctor would not, could not lose another one of his children to the Time Lords. So he had to content himself with the fact that Donna would lead a happy and fulfilling life without him, married to the man she deserved. He'd seen his daughters married off before, but this one seemed the hardest of them all.

His children of time, the adopted sons and daughters of Gallifrey though they didn't even know it. Maybe one day they'll get it, one day long after this face and this body have gone- hopefully into an older looking body to avoid future confusion- they might see that those occasional glances spoke of a love deeper than that which they envisioned. And the Doctor knows that it is here on this daft little planet in the middle of nowhere that he will meet his end, defending his new home and his new children.

It's a good life, good enough for an old man like him. So he keeps running because if he stops, if he looks back, he doesn't think he'll be able to move forward again and he can't have that, not when Rose might be transported back any moment or Martha might want a quick adventure away from the family or Donna might need another lottery ticket slipped into her mailbox.

He had too much to do before he died, a father's work, after all, is never done.

* * *

This is incredibly random I realize. As with most of my other one-shots, this came about from two or more separate musings which somehow found some common ground and ran from there. I've just re-watched most of New Who neatly rounding off the Tennant era when I was thinking about Davros' comments on the companions being Children of Time in _The Stolen Earth_ and my overall hatred and disgust over 10/Rose. It's just wrong, I'm sorry for those you that ship it, but for me, it's not cool. The Doctor should never be with one of his companions (I'm not a big 11/River shipper either but it's light years better than 10/Rose). I've always sort of gotten this vibe with the Doctor and his companions (other than the blatant Rose fluff which I happy ignored/explained away) I don't know if anyone else thinks this but I think it's nice. The Doctor started out in the '60's as a grandfather and I think it rounds him out that he still acts like one. Might just be me though.

Could've gotten into 11 and his relationship with Amy which is so totally paternal, but I really just liked it being 10 for now. Maybe later if I'm still inspired and people are interested I'll cover it, but for now I've said my piece. Review with your thoughts if you've a moment to spare.

Doctor Who (c) BBC

The deceased son and daughter of the Doctor (c) are mine


	2. Children of War

Children of War

Rory stared down at his hands. Hands that not that long ago had stroked his wife's, his_ real _wife's, hair after so long. Hands that had caused demons to run. Hands that had held his beautiful baby daughter Melody. Hands that now were empty, hopelessly, tragically empty. He gripped those empty hands tightly before looking around at the despondent air of Demon's Run.

Madame Vastra and Miss Jenny were pacing angrily, sticking close together for comfort. Toby and Henry Avery sat off the side, the old pirate throwing Rory pitying looks as he held his own son close. The various other creatures and beings staggered around now that their leader, the Doctor, was nowhere to be found. The many, many dead lay in another room. Rory felt each of their deaths acutely seeing that those poor people lost their lives in vain. Melody was gone forever, Amy was safe but not saved and he just felt empty. And it was all because of that man, the Doctor.

Amy liked to compare her two boys, her Raggedy Doctor and the Last Centurion, but Rory never felt more disgusted to be compared to such a man. A man who sacrificed armies for his own schemes, who terrified people so much that they would kidnap children to combat him. Why the next time he saw him…

"Hello Rory." The Roman turned to unleash his torrential fury upon the Doctor but stopped once he properly looked at the Time Lord. The Doctor who was always so well put together, always looking on top of the world or the universe or whatever. But now he just looked so worn down, as if he had tried to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders had had been crushed instead. "May I sit for a moment? If you're not comfortable with that, I can certainly go elsewhere." Rory, still openly staring at this man he thought he knew, motioned to the seat next to him on the bench. The Doctor fell down rather then sat down and with a heavy sigh, began running his hand through his hair. "I just came from Amy."

Oh, that explained the face. Rory had tried to talk to Amy several times but all she would do was scream and throw him out as she wailed for her lost baby. It absolutely tore him to pieces and, though Rory didn't much care for it, he knew the Doctor felt just as strongly for the ginger woman.

"And how is she doing?" Rory asked quietly. The Doctor grimaced in a show of true pain that Rory very rarely ever saw. He took a discreet glance around and saw that no one else was paying them any mind which was probably the only reason the Doctor had let his guard down. He wondered why the Doctor chose Rory of all people to confide in.

"She-she's devastated Rory. I told her that I would do absolutely everything in my power to find Melody and she just wouldn't stop screaming…things." Rory winced, Amy had an acid tongue when she was angry and he could very well imagine the horrid things that had passed her lips. He almost found himself pitying the Doctor.

"Doctor, now she doesn't really mean it, she's just upset-"

"No she's right Rory. I am a monster, a demon as bad as the ones we ran off today and I dragged you and your family right into hell with me." Rory was silent; he had no idea what to say. "Believe me Rory, if you still care to listen to me, I didn't want this to happen to you; especially not you Rory." The Doctor sighed again and pulled his hand from his hair to begin fiddling with them.

"You-you have always been special Rory, the good man I could never be. I'd like to think once, a long, long time ago I was like you; but all of that was stripped from me by war and terror. I didn't want you to see the things I had to see, the pain I had to deal with because it takes all that's good from you and you don't realize it until it's gone. Until everything you've ever loved is nothing but dust." Rory felt a chill start in his heart and slowly begin to leak out to the rest of him. Rory had always has his suspicions about the Doctor's life before the Time War but he'd never dared to think that…

"Losing a child, losing all of your children, it is the worst pain you can ever imagine. I'm sorry, it won't go away with time, it won't dull, at best it will float to the back of your mind but it's always there like a splinter under your skin; a splinter that has become infected. You don't deserve that kind of agony; I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. Every monster out there has a parent of some sorts who loves them and wants them to be safe."

"Doctor," Rory said breathlessly at the stunning amount of information that was being shared. "Why are you telling me this? You should be talking to Amy." The Doctor smiled briefly and gave Rory a hesitant pat on the shoulder.

"Because Amy wouldn't listen to me. Distraught mothers don't often pay attention to heartbroken fathers. My-my wife was hysterical when our first was lost off planet, disease took him, I don't think she ever forgave me for letting him die so far away from home." He paused, as if he was just as surprised to be saying such personal things. "As for why I'm talking to you, a long time ago I was angry and lost and wondering what good a childless father would be to the universe. And then I met a human, a girl named-named Rose…" he stopped to take a hitching breath and that told Rory everything he needed to know about who this Rose girl was to the Doctor. "And she fixed me Rory."

"She gave me my purpose back, kept the darkness at bay, gave me another child to look after and love. She left, just like children always do, but she never left in here. She's in here with all my children, humans and Time Lords alike ." He said with a light smile pointing to his hearts. "Lots of people came and went and they all made me better. It's not the same of course, just as things will never quite be the same for you and Amy. But it's all we have and we have to make the best of it or else you'll just shrivel and die. It's called being alive, it's not always easy, but you can find things that it make it worth living."

Rory smiled back at the Doctor, who now looked a little better or at least a little more presentable. Maybe-maybe he'd never quite understood the Doctor before but now he thinks he's starting to. Rory could now appreciate some of Amy comparisons. The Doctor grinned at Rory and patted him on the knee and stood up, probably to go soothe the various soldiers in his army. Rory would probably go get Amy, tell her that he loved her and that they would get baby Melody back even if he knew it wasn't true. But before that…

"But Doctor, one last thing... You mentioned that some of the humans you traveled with, you saw them as-as- well you know and um do you, I mean, are we-" The Doctor smiled again and brought his hand up to give Rory's short hair an affectionate stroke before planting a kiss on his forehead, the kind he gave Amy all the time. The Doctor grinned one last time and wandered off, pulling Vastra and Jenny near him as he began discussing something.

Rory rubbed his forehead thoughtfully, well _that_ was certainly news. He sat up and made his way over to the room where he knew Amy was holed up. Maybe he could drag her out, get her to talk to some of the women to calm her down. Maybe he'd even let the Doctor have another go and give Amy a chance to apologize. Rory wouldn't mind, not this time, he'd finally realized that he had nothing fear from the Doctor. He'd finally understood the real meaning of the love the Doctor held for Amelia Pond and, apparently, one Rory Williams as well.

* * *

I've been planning this one for awhile and it just spewed out one day. The relationship between Rory and the Doctor is a very complex and interesting one. But I noticed how Rory went from completely mistrusting to loving acceptance sometime in the beginning of season 6... my thoughts on that. The doctor soothing Rory's baby woes seemed a good stepping point for their relationship. I had planned on putting this in my Doctor Who one shot collection I'm putting together but since this references my own personal headcanon for the Doctor's family, I felt it belonged here. Reviews are welcome.


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